Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia today used his tardiness to avoid answering whether he will be resigning following the handling of last week's shooting.

"I am late for question time," Dr Mallia said, walking into Parliament 10 minutes late.

Asked the same question again, Dr Mallia again used his tardiness as an excuse not to answer.

Question have been raised over the handling of last Wednesday's evening, after the government initially said that Dr Mallia's security driver Paul Sheehan fired several warning shots in the air.

The following day, it emerged that several of the shots were actually fired at a British man's car, after the driver clipped Dr Mallia's car.

Procedure was also violated when the police moved the British man's car onto a low loader before the magisterial inquiry got under way.